Wetlands Ecol Manage (2022) 30:477–496
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-022-09875-3
ORIGINAL PAPER
Monitoring migratory birds of India’s largest shallow
saline Ramsar site (Sambhar Lake) using geospatial data
for wetland restoration
Rajashree Naik · Laxmi Kant Sharma
Received: 26 October 2021 / Accepted: 10 March 2022 / Published online: 29 March 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022
Abstract Globally, saline lakes occupy about 23%
by area, and 44% by volume. Importantly, these lakes
might desiccate by 2025 due to agricultural diversion,
illegal encroachment, or modify due to pollution, and
invasive species. India’s largest saline lake, Sambhar
is currently shrinking at a phenomenal rate of 4.23%
every decade due to illegal saltpan encroachments.
This study aims to identify the trend of migratory
birds and monthly wetland status. Birds’ survey was
conducted for 2019, 2020 and 2021, and combined
it with literature data of 1994, 2003, and 2013, for
understanding their visiting trends, feeding habits,
migratory and resident birds ratio, along with ecolog-
ical diversity index analysis. Normalized Difference
Water Index (NDWI) was scripted in Google Earth
Engine. Results state that lake has been suitable for 97
species. Highest NDWI values was 0.71 in 2021 and
lowest 0.008 in 2019. Notably, the decreasing trend of
migratory birds coupled with decreasing water level
indicates the dubious status for its existence. If these
causal factors are not checked, it might completely
desiccate. Authors recommend a few steps that might
Supplementary Information The online version
contains supplementary material available at https://​doi.​
org/​10.​1007/​s11273-​022-​09875-3.
R. Naik · L. K. Sharma (*)
Department of Environmental Science, School of Earth
Sciences, Central University of Rajasthan, Bandarsindri,
Ajmer, Rajasthan 305817, India
e-mail: laxmikant_evs@curaj.ac.in
help conservation. Least, the cost of restoration might
exceed the revenue generation.
Keywords Saline lakes · Human interventions ·
Google Earth Engine · Normalized Difference Water
Index · Wetland management · Restoration
Introduction
Globally, saline lakes occupy 23% by area and 44%
by volume (Zadereev et al. 2020). These lakes are
usually confined to arid and semi-arid regions of the
earth (Wurtsbaugh et al. 2017). They show similar
vertical stratification to freshwater systems. They
primarily differ in their ionic composition due to
the salinity factor that ranges from 3 g/L to 300 g/L
(Fukushi et al. 2020). Due to anthropogenic pres-
sure and climate change, numerous lakes have rapidly
been drying up even before we realize (Hassani et al.
2020). A recent salient example is a 90% decline of
the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, within a
span of just 50 years (Wang et al. 2020a, b). Nota-
bly, as compared to deep saline lakes, shallow ones
are far more sensitive, even to slight variations, accel-
erating their desiccation thereof (Zhang et al. 2020).
In fact, their drying condition exposes the lakebed,
which is rich in numerous minerals of sodium, mag-
nesium, calcium, lithium, and potassium. Exposure
of these minerals can be carried away by the wind
of drylands and loose these precious resources. This
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can impact the billion-dollar global mineral market
(Connolly et al. 2020). These can also lead to public
health hazards, primarily respiratory problems, lung
diseases, and related infections due to salt, sand, and
dust storms (Tussupova et al. 2020). Additionally,
the shrinkage of these lakes or complete desiccation
can bring down the entire ecosystem. Consequently,
significant amount of funds would be required for
their restoration, as opposed to the revenue genera-
tion. This has already been seen in the case of Lake
Owen’s at Los Angeles city (Zhang 2020). These are
vital aquatic ecosystems that provide a wide range
of ecosystem services, habitat for lakhs of migratory
birds and halo-alkaliphiles. However, they have been
ignored compared to their freshwater counterparts
(Naik and Sharma 2021). This might be, primarily
due to their presence in inaccessible areas (Kolpakova
et al. 2019). However, since the launch of first-ever
satellite in 1972, application of Remote Sensing (RS)
and Geographic Information System (GIS) has ena-
bled conducting landscape-level studies due to the
availability of real-time, cost-effective, and dynamic
satellite images, which significantly differ from tradi-
tional in-situ measurements (Naik and Sharma 2021).
Currently, 6542 satellites are orbiting around
the earth, out of which, 3372 are operational, while
3170 satellites are non-operational. The operational
ones provide petabytes of datasets (McDowell 2020).
Besides, space-borne satellites, other platforms like
airplanes, ground-based platforms, Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs), along with data from statistical,
ecological, social, and geological constitute enor-
mous volume of data, also termed as Big Earth Data
(BED) (Esch et al. 2020). BED requires high-end
desktop computational facilities, developed infra-
structure, along with huge storage capacities, which
effectively limit earth observation studies (Yao et al.
2020). However, cloud computing platforms, like
Google Earth Engine (GEE) has been minimizing
the obstacles mentioned above since 2010 (Gore-
lick et al. 2017). Its data repository is a collection of
approximately 40 years of satellite imagery, at mul-
tiple Spatio-temporal scales (Mutanga and Kumar
2019). In fact, it has wide range of data of Landsat
series; National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration Advanced Very High-Resolution
Radiometer (NOAA AVHRR), Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS); Sentinel 1, 2, and
3, Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) and
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many more (Mutanga and Kumar 2019). The minimal
requirements are a simple desktop or laptop and inter-
net connectivity (Kennedy et al. 2018). It eliminates
the steps like raw satellite data downloading, pre-pro-
cessing, layer stacking, mosaicking, clipping region
of interest before conducting the actual operations,
as it has JavaScript-based algorithms for each opera-
tion (Vos et al. 2019). This also facilitates importing
and uploading of own vector and raster datasets. The
results can be exported from GEE in GeoTIFF format
to own Google Drive account. This enables minimum
dependence on special remote sensing software, such
as Earth Resources Data Analysis System (ERDAS)
Imagine and Environment for Visualizing Images
(ENVI). Nevertheless, these softwares are still needed
for special functions that are not offered on GEE (like
object-based image assessment) (Wang et al. 2020a,
b). Notably, GEE has been widely explored for veg-
etation mapping and monitoring, such as global esti-
mation of Fraction of Absorbed Photo-synthetically
Active Radiation (FAPAR) (Mutanga and Kumar
2019). Leaf Area Index (LAI) (Campos-Taberner
et al. 2018), Canopy Water Content (CWC) (Pipia
et al. 2021), and Fraction Vegetation Cover (FVC)
(Anchang et al. 2020), for agricultural applications
like crop area mapping (Vermeulen et al. 2021),
crop yield estimation (Liu et al. 2020), and pests and
diseases vulnerability (Cao et al. 2021). It has also
been used for aquatic ecosystems such as long term
chlorophyll monitoring of lake Utah (Cardall et al.
2021), Amu Darya river channel dynamics (Mobariz
& Kaplan 2021), classification of Canadian wetlands
with 84.37 to 88.96% accuracy, mapping national
scale aquaculture ponds (Duan et al. 2020), identifi-
cation of wetland classes (Gulácsi & Kovács), prep-
aration of wetland inventories with 84% accuracy
(Amani et al. 2019) and in India GEE has also been
used for land use change of lake Kolleru (Kolli et al.
2020). However, this technology has been quite less
explored for saline wetlands.
Remote sensing images have been used to extract
water bodies including several methods like single
band density slicing (Ding et al. 2016), supervised
(Gautam et al. 2015) and unsupervised classification
(Dibs 2018) and spectral water indexes (Fisher et al.
2016). However, among all these methods, index-
based method is widely accepted, due to its efficient
and user-friendly process (Gautam et al. 2015). At
first, Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI)
Wetlands Ecol Manage (2022) 30:477–496
was proposed by McFeeters (1996) using the green
and Near Infrared (NIR) bands of satellite images,
as water bodies do have strong absorbability and
low radiation in the range from visible to infrared
wavelengths. Xu (2006) modified NDWI and named
it MNDWI by substituting original NIR band with
shortwave-infrared (SWIR) band to decrease commis-
sion errors in vegetation, built-up, and soil. Further,
Feyisa et al. (2014) developed an Automated Water
Extraction Index (AWEI), which removes misclassifi-
cation of shadow as water, by using multiple spectral
bands. Tasseled Cap Wetness (TCW) index has also
been used for water studies (Chen et al. 2019). Even
though there are numerous indices available, NDWI
has been the most accepted and widely used, due to
its simplicity, wide applicability to any water sys-
tem, and usability with any satellite datasets (Watson
et al. 2018) such as for water body detection (Özelkan
2020), surface water mapping at 91% accuracy (Li
et al. 2013), for surface water dynamics (Sathianaray-
anan 2018), differentiating between water body and
settlement areas (Singh et al. 2015) and in India for
Rabi River basin (Taloor et al. 2021).
This study is conducted in the largest shallow saline
Ramsar site of India. It is currently undergoing desicca-
tion due to saltpan encroachment, illegal water extraction,
brine theft and increasing urban pressure. As a result of
which, the whole ecology is at stake. Many of the birds
visiting to Sambhar Lake are dependent on saline-alkaline
lakes for fulfilling part of their life cycle. Their declining
population for this lake indicates existence of some dis-
turbance in their habitat requirement. Availability of water
in the lake is the prime factor for the structural and func-
tional aspects of this ecosystem. The authors started this
research with the motive to analyze prime aspect of this
lake (saline soil, water, birds, halophytes and halophiles).
However, due to COVID-19 pandemic, methodology was
modified. So, in order to analyze the current position, this
study aims to investigate the status of migratory birds
and water availability. For this purpose, we performed
our research in multiple phases. First, we conducted bird
survey for three consecutive years, i.e., 2019, 2020 and
2021. We combined data gathered from this survey with
literature survey data to understand and analyze the long-
term visiting trends, migratory and resident ratio, feeding
habits, and ecological diversity index calculation. Sec-
ondly, we examined the monthly status of wetland for
our survey period, using NDWI in GEE platform. This
paper is divided into five sections; the first, provides a
479
brief overview of the global status of saline lakes, devel-
opmental phases of remote sensing from desk computing
to cloud computing and further applicability of NDWI.
The second section elaborates on the study area, and
methodology followed for bird and wet-land status. The
third highlights the results, while the fourth, discusses the
results. Lastly, section five concludes the study.
Materials and methods
Study area
Sambhar Salt Lake (26° 52′ to 27° 02′ N; 74° 54′–75°
14′ E) is a playa wetland, located towards the east of the
Thar Desert (Fig. 1), surrounded by the Aravali hill ranges
of India (Kaushik and Raza 2019). It is located 80.7 km
away from Jaipur, which is the state capital of Rajasthan.
The lake can be reached via National Highway 48 and
Rajasthan State Highway 57 (Singh et al. 2018). In 1961,
the Government of India (GoI) took over this region on a
99-year lease under the Ministry of Commerce and Indus-
try Salt production. India exports approximately 230 mil-
lion tons of salt to the global market after China and USA,
to 198 countries like Japan, Bangladesh, Qatar, Indone-
sia, South and North Ko-rea, Malaysia, U.A.E, and Viet-
nam (Naik and Sharma 2021). Being an inland wetland,
it is 230 ­km2 (22.5 km in length and 3–1 km in width)
(Sharma et al. 2020a). A 5.16 km long dam was built for
reservoir (77 ­km2) and wetland area (113 k­ m2) (Sharma
et al. 2020b). Its saline character is contributed by the
presence of salts of sodium, calcium, potassium, and
magnesium cations and chloride, carbonate, bicarbonate,
and sulphate anions (Sharma et al. 2021). It seems white
in areas that are rich with salt content; grey with less salt,
and brown with no salt content. Being in semi-arid cli-
matic zone, it receives about 500 mm rainfall during mon-
soon (i.e. July–September), and has water during winter
(i.e. October- March) when the temperature is between
11 and 24.4 °C. It almost dries out in summer (i.e. April-
June) when the temperature rises to 40.7 °C. It is a shal-
low lake with vertical depth ranging from 3 to 0.6 m
during monsoon to summer seasons f(Sar et al. 2021).
Its water system is supported by ephemeral streams like
Mendha, Kharian, Rupnagar, and Khandel, forming a
catchment of 5520 ­km2 (Kumari 2021). This amazing site
is one of the most important visiting grounds for migra-
tory water birds on the East Asian, Central Asian, and
East African flyways. It was declared as Ramsar site on
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Fig. 1  Study area. a Is
India; b is Rajasthan with
three states and c is True
Color Composite of Samb-
har Lake of 8 January 2021
with birds’ survey points
23 March 1990 (Bairwa et al. 2021). There are about 1
lakh water birds, primarily flamingos coming over in the
winter to this lake, and most of them are distributed in
the saltpan areas, as there is some water left in the natural
wetland area (Bhatia et al. 2021). Unfortunately, the water
level of this lake has been decreasing rapidly due to illegal
saltpan encroachments (Naik and Sharma 2021). Nota-
bly, it also provides shelter to rich floral diversity, such
as species of 37 herbs, 14 shrubs, 14 trees, 15 grass, 6
chlorophyceae, 25 Cyanophyceae and 7 Bacilariophyceae
(Sharma et al. 2019). Hence, regular monitoring of water
birds and their distribution along with mapping their habi-
tats in entire flyways are necessary for their conservation.
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Bird census data
Migratory birds visit to the lake during winter season.
So, 3 surveys were carried out for 3 days each, during
the winter season of the years 2019, 2020 and 2021. To
maintain the uniformity the surveys were organized every
third week of January to second week of February. The
wetland survey included both the natural wetland as well
as saltpan. Bird counting was done barefoot for some
inaccessible sites, while other sites were visited using
vehicles. 10 observation points were used, from which the
bird censuses were conducted. To avoid two-fold count-
ing, when a flock of birds flew away into any section, it
was not recorded. Censuses were carried out, using binoc-
ulars and camera during morning periods, when birds are
Wetlands Ecol Manage (2022) 30:477–496
most active. This was carried for almost three hours (6:00
to 10:00 AM; GMT + 5:30). Species identification and
their foraging habitat were recorded using Asian Water-
bird Census (AWC) given form. As Sambhar Lake has
elevation of almost 360 m above mean sea level, and is
surrounded by the Aravalli hill range in the outer bound-
ary, there are no visual topographic hindrance for the sur-
veys. Surveys were conducted by the same volunteers to
avoid variation. Importantly, the availability of time-series
data from literature are scarce. However, we selected for
the years 1994–1997 (Kumar 2008), 2003 (Shukla and
Bhatnagar 2005), 2013 (Sharma et al. 2013). These cen-
suses were mostly conducted during winter season which
matched our period of study.
Satellite data
Sentinel-2 mission was launched in 2015 by Euro-
pean Space Agency (ESA). It provides open access
to high spatial resolution optical and microwave data.
Compared to the oldest satellite series Landsat, it pro-
vides images with more spectral bands, higher spatial
and temporal resolutions, and wider swath. Thereby,
it has a wide range of applicability in the fields of
land monitoring (Phiri et al. 2020), vegetation (Gar-
ioud et al. 2021), agricultural (Segarra et al. 2020),
water (Soomets et al. 2020) and soil research (Ramos
et al. 2020). The Sentinel-2 data contains 13 spectral
bands representing Top of Atmospheric (TOA) reflec-
tance scaled by 10,000 (Li et al. 2020). Additionally,
three Quality Assurance (QA) bands are available,
Table 1  List of Google S. no. Functions
Earth Engine functions used
1 ee.ImageCollection
2 ee.Date
3 .filterMetadata
4 .filterBounds
5 .clip
6 .sort
7 .mask
8 Map.centerObject
9 .Map.addLayer
10 .image.select
11 img.normalizedDifference
12 .select
13 .rename
14 .Export.image.toDrive
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among which, one (QA60) is a bitmask band with
cloud mask information (Meraner et al. 2020). Each
Sentinel-2 product set (zip archive), and contains
multiple granules, which are individual assets in
GEE (Xulu et al. 2021). Sentinel-2 carries the for-
mat as COPERNI-CUS/S2/20211005T002653_
20211231T102149_T56MNN as a GEE asset (Xiao
et al. 2021). The first numeric part represents the data
acquisition date and time, the second part signifies
the product generation date and time, and the final
six-character string represents unique granule identi-
fier, showing its UTM grid reference. For this study,
the Level-2 data found in the collection of COPER-
NICUS/S2_SR were accessed for 3 years from 2019
to 2021 from GEE.
Google Earth Engine
Sentinel-2 images from 2019 to 2021 were assessed,
using various functions, as described in Table 1. To
reduce the effect of cloud cover, we used two removal
techniques: (1) GEE algorithm based on sorting algo-
rithm in which, images having less than 20% cloud
cover are sorted. (2) GEE algorithm based on pixels
method in which, it assigns a cloud score to indi-
vidual pixels, and selects the lowest available range
of cloud scores. Further, it computes the per-band
percentile values from the selected pixels (Nazarova
et al. 2020). Here, we specifically used the second
method, along with QA60 algorithm for updating
Purposes
To select satellite for which data will be used
To define date for which data will be selected
To filter metadata for which image will be selected
To define region of interest
To clip region of interest
To define cloud cover
To mask cloudy image
To display median of selected image
To display image
To select the desired bands
To calculate NDWI
To select desired NDWI image
To rename the output image
To export final output to drive
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cloud cover mask. Then, NDWI was calculated using
the respective function and visualized it in GEE.
Normalized Difference Water Index
The water index is based on the spectral features of
water, so that it can differentiate between water and
non-water classes, and extract water pixels accord-
ing to a suitable threshold. McFeeters (1996) stated
that values of NDWI greater than zero represent water
surfaces, while values less than, or equal, to zero rep-
resent non-water surfaces. Vegetation and soil charac-
teristics usually have zero to negative values and are
suppressed. NDWI is calculated using Eq. (1) where
Band 2 is the TOA green light reflectance, while
Band 4 is the TOA near-infrared (NIR) reflectance.
(Green − NIR)
NDWI = (1)
(Green + NIR)
Exporting
The water surface extraction algorithm was used
in the GEE platform every month. It identified the
parts of the lake, both with and without water. Then,
NDWI for each month was exported to Google drive,
using a Java code, and downloaded in.tif format. In
Arc GIS, these indices outputs were reclassified into
5 classes to find the actual water spread area of the
lake, and finally a map was composed. The compre-
hensive methodology is shown in Fig. 2.
Results
Birds’ status
Trend analysis
From the combined results of literature and our sur-
vey, it is calculated that in total (Fig. 3a, b), 97 species
belonging to 23 families have visited the lake since
1994. These families include Anhingidae, Accipitridae,
Alaudidae, Alcedinidae, Anatidae, Ardeidae, Burhini-
dae, Charadriidae, Ciconiidae, Cuculidae, Glareolidae,
Gruidae, Ibidorhynthidae, Laridae, Motacillidae, Pele-
canidae, Phalacrocoracidae, Phoenicopteridae, Podici-
pedidae, Rallidae, Recurvirostridae, Scolopacidae,
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Fig. 2  Methodology
Threskiornithidae. Notably, among these, 9 species
belong to near threatened, 3 vulnerable, 2 endangered
and 77 least concern as per IUCN Red List.
70 species of 17 families visited in between
1994 and 1997 (Fig. 3c). They include Accipitridae
(1), Anatidae (15), Anhingidae (1), Ardeidae (8),
Charadriidae (7), Ciconiidae (2), Glareolidae (1),
Gruidae (3), Laridae (5), Pelecanidae (1), Phalacroco-
racidae (2), Phoenicopteridae (2), Podicipedidae (2),
Rallidae (2), Recurvirostridae (2), Scolopacidae (14),
Threskiornithidae (2). Species of 6 families which
belong to Alaudidae, Alcedinidae, Burhinidae, Cucu-
lidae, Ibidorhynthidae, and Motacillidae were absent.
51 species of 16 families visited in 2003 (Fig. 3d).
They are Anatidae (6), Anhingidae (1), Ardeidae (7),
Charadriidae (4), Ciconiidae (2), Glareolidae (1),
Gruidae (3), Laridae (5), Pelecanidae (1), Phalacro-
coracidae (2), Phoenicopteridae (2), Podicipedidae
(1), Rallidae (3), Recurvirostridae (2), Scolopacidae
(7), Threskiornithidae (4). Species which belong to 7
families Alaudidae, Accipitridae, Alcedinidae, Burhi-
nidae, Cuculidae, Ibidorhynthidae, and Motacillidae
were absent. 43 species of 10 families visited in 2013
(Fig. 3e). They are Anatidae (8), Ardeidae (4), Burhi-
nidae (4), Charadriidae (2), Gruidae (4), Laridae (2),
Phoenicopteridae (1), Podicipedidae (2), Recurvi-
rostridae (15) and Scolopacidae (1). Species which
belong to 13 families Anhingidae, Accipitridae, Alau-
didae, Alcedinidae, Ciconiidae, Cuculidae, Glare-
olidae, Ibidorhynthidae, Motacillidae, Pelecanidae,
Phalacrocoracidae, Rallidae, and Threskiornithidae
were absent.
Wetlands Ecol Manage (2022) 30:477–496
Fig. 3  Showing temporal graphs of bird presence/absence results. (a) and (b) show family and species wise and c–h show class-wise
distribution
28 species of 9 families visited in 2019 (Fig. 3f).
They include Anatidae (5), Ardeidae (1), Burhinidae
(5), Charadriidae (2), Motacillidae (2), Phoenicopteri-
dae (1), Podicipedidae (2), Recurvirostridae (9) and
Scolopacidae (1). Species which belong to 14 families
483
Anhingidae, Accipitridae, Alaudidae, Alcedinidae,
Ciconiidae, Cuculidae, Glareolidae, Gruidae, Ibido-
rhynthidae, Laridae, Pelecanidae, Phalacrocoracidae,
Rallidae and Threskiornithidae are absent. 32 spe-
cies of 12 families visited in 2020 (Fig. 3g). They
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are Accipitridae (1), Alaudidae (1), Alcedinidae (2),
Anatidae (2), Ardeidae (5), Charadriidae (1), Cuculi-
dae (1), Laridae (2), Motacillidae (2), Phoenicopteri-
dae (2), Recurvirostridae (12), and Scolopacidae (1).
Species which belong to 11 families like Anhingidae,
Burhinidae, Ciconiidae, Glareolidae, Gruidae, Ibido-
rhynthidae, Pelecanidae, Phalacrocoracidae, Podici-
pedidae, Rallidae, and Threskiornithidae are absent.
41 species of 13 families visited in 2021 (Fig. 3h).
They are Alcedinidae (9), Anatidae (6), Ardeidae (3),
Charadriidae (1), Ciconiidae (3), Laridae (2), Phalac-
rocoracidae (1), Phoenicopteridae (1), Podicipedidae
(3), Rallidae (2), Recurvirostridae (6), Scolopacidae
(3) and Threskiornithidae (1). Species that belong
to 10 families, like Anhingidae, Accipitridae, Alau-
didae, Burhinidae, Cuculidae, Glareolidae, Grui-
dae, Ibidorhynthidae, Motacillidae, and Pelecanidae
were absent. The details of ‘bird analysis’ is given in
Table S1.
Feeding habit analysis
From Fig. 4 a, it is clear that the Sambhar Lake
always attracts a great number of carnivorous birds,
Fig. 4  a Shows feeding
habit, b shows migratory/
resident type and c major
visiting countries
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as compared to herbivores and omnivores. In between
1994 and 1997, 70 species of birds visited the lake,
out of which 46 species were carnivores, 8 species
were herbivores, and 16 species were omnivorous.
In 2003, out of total 51 bird species, 36 were carni-
vores, 4 were herbivores and 11 were omnivores. In
2013, out of total 43 species, 30 were carnivores, 4
were herbivores and 9 were omnivores. In 2019, out
of total 28 species, 21 were carnivores, 4 were herbi-
vores and 3 were omnivores. In 2020, out of total 32
species, 26 species were carnivores, 2 species were
herbivores, and 4 species were omnivores. In 2021,
out of total 41 species, 28 species were carnivores, 4
were herbivores and 9 were omnivores. Carnivorous
birds visit this lake which feed upon fishes, eggs,
small mammals, insects, reptiles, frogs, worms, crus-
taceans, mollusks, snails, amphibians, insect larvae,
snakes, lizards, spiders, mice, grasshoppers, crickets,
flies, moths, nestling birds, earth worms, cray fishes,
bees, tadpoles, leeches, clams, mussels, turtles, cater-
pillars, beetles, termites, ants, midges, locusts, grubs,
mantids, stick insects, cicadas, maggots, cyprinids,
pikes, roaches, eels, perches, burbots, sticklebacks,
muddy loaches, shrimps and offal. Herbivores birds
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feed upon seeds, roots tubers, parts of plants, grasses,
aquatic plants, seeds, grains, various grasses, oats,
wheat, barley, leaves, cereal stubbles, growing crops,
nuts, rice, sweet corn, and roots. Omnivorous birds
eat either of the available food.
Migratory pattern analysis
From Fig. 4b, it is seen that there are more migratory
birds than resident birds in this lake. Among the total
of 70 species of birds that visited during 1994–1997,
57 were migratory, while only 13 were resident. In
2003, among 51 species, 39 were migratory, while 12
were resident species. In 2013, out of total 43 species,
39 were migratory, and only 4 were resident species.
In 2019, out of total 28 species, 23 were migratory,
while 5 were resident species. In 2020, out of total
32 species, 24 were migratory, and 8 were resident
species. In 2021, out of total 41 species, 32 were
migratory, and 9 were resident species. Majority of
migratory birds that visit the lake are primarily from
European countries like Iceland, England, Ireland,
Hungary, Italy, Spain, Turkey. Birds also visit from
other countries like Africa, and Iran during winter
season for resting, roosting, and breeding as shown in
Fig. 4c.
Ecological diversity index
Two ecological species diversity indices have been
calculated (Table 1). They include Shannon–Weiner
and Simpson diversity for the year of our study period
(2019–2021). The values of Shannon–Weiner index
are 2, 1.09, 3.07 for 2019, 2020 and 2021 respec-
tively. The values of Simpson index are 0.21, 0.42,
and 0.07 for 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Wetland status
For Sambhar Lake, 2019, 2020 and 2021 were very
vital years. In 2019, it faced its first ever avian botu-
lism, in 2020, country wide longest shut down due to
COVID-19 and in 2021 repeated phase-wise locks
downs. All these cumulatively affected the economic
activities, which could be the prime factor for its
degradation. So, it is important to note the year wise
NDWI values. Since, shallow lakes are most vulner-
able to water level fluctuation with slight changes
in wind speed increase or rise in temperature. The
485
fluctuation fastens if the lakes are inland lakes as
most of them are also endorheic basins. Since, Samb-
har Lake is fulfilling the above criteria, also addition-
ally it is located near to a semi-arid desert of India, it
is more prone to surface water fluctuation. So, impor-
tant to provide month wise NDWI values also.
2019
In the year 2019 (Fig. 5), the highest NDWI value for
the whole year was 0.6 in October, and lowest was
0.08 in July. During winter, the highest value was 0.6
in October and 0.35 in November. During summer,
the highest was 0.29 in April and 0.11 in June. Dur-
ing monsoon, the highest value was 0.41 in Septem-
ber and 0.08 in July.
2020
In the year 2020 (Fig. 6), the highest NDWI value for
the whole year was 0.67 in February, and lowest was
0.1 in June. During winter, the highest value was 0.67
in February, and 0.39 in March. During summer, the
highest was 0.49 in April, and 0.1 in June. During
monsoon, the highest value was 0.5 in September and
0.15 in July.
2021
In the year 2021 (Fig. 7), the highest NDWI value for
the year until July was 0.71 in February and lowest
was 0.1 in June. During winter, the highest value was
0.71 in February, and 0.26 in March. During summer,
the highest was 0.28 in April and 0.08 in June. Can-
not be compared as the data is available for only July
month with value 0.21.
From the results of NDWI it observed that the
water regime is fluctuating every month putting
adverse impact to the lake ecosystem.
Discussion
We investigated the status of wetland and migratory
birds for 2019, 2020 and 2021, accompanied by data
retrieved from literature and bird survey data. We
analyzed the trends, feeding habits and migratory
behavior of the migratory birds to the study area. The
monthly status of wetland was also integrated. We
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Fig. 5  NDWI maps of 2019
conducted bird census consistently for three years
during winter to collect our primary data. We used
literature as a secondary source of data for identify-
ing bird details in previous years, along with Arc GIS
software for preparing field visit plans, and identify-
ing sampling locations. We used Sentinel 2 B satellite
data of 2021 for preparing the study area map, and
field visiting map of 2021 January. Largely, we found
the results to be very depressing. Since the last few
decades, there has been a decreasing trend of migra-
tory birds visiting the lake. Birds of many families
have stopped visiting. Numerous IUCN listed birds
that used to come, have also stopped coming to the
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lake. Due to continuous shrinkage of wetland, there
is little water to support aquatic life forms, which
serve as a foundation of the complex food web. This
is distinctly reflected in the decreasing trend of birds.
The field photographs are shown in Fig. 8, in which
Fig. 8a–c represent seasonal change of lake color, 8d
and 8e showcase flocks of flamingo, and common ruff
respectively and 8f show our bird census team with
AWC.
It is also disheartening to state that the trend of
visiting birds consistently decreased till 2019. In fact,
during the monsoon period of 2019, the lake received
heavy rainfall which helped to revive the water level.
Wetlands Ecol Manage (2022) 30:477–496
Fig. 6  NDWI maps of 2020
Shockingly, this lake encountered first-ever avian bot-
ulism in its history (Jhajhria 2020). It was observed
on 13th November 2019 by some tourists. In this
incidence, more than forty thousand migratory birds,
primarily northern shoveler died (Jhajhria 2020). To
avoid any human infection, the salt extraction activity
was legally stopped for nearly two months (Novem-
ber, December, and January) (Jhajhria 2020), which
helped to retain the water level, during these months,
as shown in figures of wetland maps, observed using
GEE. Meanwhile, COVID-19 was also scaring the
487
country, and India had its longest countrywide shut-
down due to COVID-19 from March to May 2020.
This completely restricted any sort of economic activ-
ity within the lake. This further helped the water
retention in the lake even during the drying months
(April–May) as shown in result section. This pro-
longed the availability of water in the lake is reflected
in the increasing pattern for the years 2020 and 2021
bird censuses.
Analyzing the temporal trend of birds, it is
observed that during 1994, the lake welcomed 70
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Fig. 7  NDWI maps of 2021
species, which belonged to 17 families. These fur-
ther reduced to 28 species of 9 families in 2019.
The most dominating families used to be Anati-
dae and Scolopacidae. They accounted for 41.4%,
which reduced to 21.4% in 2019. Though consist-
ently Scolopacidae maintained to be the dominating
family till 2020; in 2021, it was the second domi-
nating family. During 1994–1997, out of total 15
birds of Anatidae, 13 were migratory birds. Among
these 13, 8 were omnivorous and 5 were herbivo-
rous. Among the two resident birds, 1 was omnivo-
rous, while the other was herbivorous. The point of
concern is for Common pochard, being a migratory
bird, currently under vulnerable category of IUCN
red list appeared in 1994–1997, but were further not
identified until 2020 survey. Though it reappeared
only in 2020, again was absent in 2021 survey.
Other birds of this family which also have irregular
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visiting patterns to this lake includes Ruddy Shel-
duck, Cotton Pygmy Goose, Gadwall, Eurasian
Wigeon, Mallard, Garganey, Red-Crested Pochard,
Common Pochard, and Tufted Duck.
Focusing on Scolopacidae, out of 14 birds that vis-
ited, all were migratory birds, and among them, 13
were carnivorous and 1 omnivorous. In this family,
two species of Black-tailed godwit and Curlew sand-
piper are under near threatened category. Interest-
ingly the first species has been consistently recorded,
but the latter was never seen further. Common snipe
was recorded in 1994 and 2003 only. Further, only
1 Pin-tailed snipe was recorded in 2020. Eurasian
Whimbrel and Sanderling were never recorded in
subsequent years. Species like Broad-billed sandpi-
per, green sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Red Phala-
rope, and Ruddy Turnstone, which were absent in
1994–1997 phase were identified during our survey
Wetlands Ecol Manage (2022) 30:477–496
Fig. 8  (a–c) represents the seasonal change of lake color, (8d) and (8e) showcase flocks of flamingo, and common ruff respectively,
and (8f) show our bird census team with AWC​
periods in different years. Additionally, consider-
ing other families, Egyptian vulture of Accipitridae
family, which is also an endangered listed bird never
recorded after 1994–1997 survey. However, in 2020,
Western Marsh-Harrier, another species of this family
was observed.
Anhingidae (Darter, near threatened), Glareolidae
(Collared pratincole), Gruidae (Sarus crane, Dem-
oiselle crane, and Common crane) and Pelecanidae
(Great white pelican) almost disappeared after 2003,
and were never recorded further. Families Ciconii-
dae (Painted stork, near threatened and Black stork),
Phalacrocoracidae (Little Cormorant and Great cor-
morant), Rallidae (purple moorhen was never found
again, Eurasian coot and Common moorhen were
found again, and White-breasted Waterhen was for
the first time observed in 2021), and Threskiornithi-
dae (Glossy ibis, Eurasian spoonbill, Red-naped Ibis,
and Oriental white ibis) re-appeared after revival
of the lake water during 2020–2021. Families like
Alaudidae, Alcedinidae (White-breasted Kingfisher),
Cuculidae (Greater Coucal), and Motacillidae (White
Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, and White-browed Wag-
tail) appeared during our survey period only. Some
families that have been persistently visiting the lake
includes Anatidae, Ardeidae, Charadriidae, Laridae,
489
Phoenicopteridae, Podicipedidae, Recurvirostridae,
and Scolopacidae; however, not all the species con-
sistently visited.
To emphasize feeding habits, it is clear that the
lake had always been dominated by carnivores, fol-
lowed by omnivores and least by herbivores. The
trophic structure of this lake starts with the phyto-
plankton, which survives in the lake during monsoon
to winter (Vijay et al. 2016). The lake receives rain-
fall of about 500 mm from July to October during
monsoon season. The vital abiotic factors regulating
its ecosystem are oxygen, salinity, alkalinity, tem-
perature and brine density. During monsoon it has
high oxygen level and other factors are low. (Upasani
and Desai 1990). The oxygen level starts decreasing,
and other parameters start increasing towards win-
ter season, up to March. These shifts in abiotic fac-
tors from monsoon to winter also leads to shifting in
biotic factors like phytoplankton, zooplankton, insect,
crustacea, protozoa, rotifer and other vertebrates and
invertebrates (Shukla and Bhatnagar 2005). Dur-
ing monsoon, the color of the brine appears green to
dark green (Fig. 8a) due to the presence of abundant
oligohaline organisms like cyanobacteria, algae, and
diatoms (Upasani and Desai 1990). These are prime
foods for rich heteroptera diversity residing in the
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lake. Sometimes it is also suitable for freshwater spe-
cies on dilution of brine (Baid 1959).
Subsequently, it changes to orange (Fig. 8b) to
dark pink color (Fig. 8c) by the end of winter, taken
over by euryhaline organisms (Vijay et al. 2018).
These oligohaline and euryhaline are also called true
aquatic life forms for the lake. These favorable sea-
sons, accompanied by suitable abiotic condition at
pH level 7 to 10 promote their sporulation, germina-
tion and germling developments for phytoplankton
(Reddy 1984). Salinity ranges from 50 to 120 mg/l,
while brine density from 1.07 to 1.17 g/cm3 from
monsoon to winter season (Bhat et al. 2015). The
lake supports rich biodiversity of vertebrates, inver-
tebrates, phytoplankton, and prokaryotes when the
salinity is below 50 gm/l (Baid 1959). These are
found towards the shoreline of the lake. During sum-
mer (April-June), when it increases to 100 gm/l to
120 gm/l, there is shift in organisms by hygrophilic
life forms like haloalkaliphilic sulphate, reducing
bacteria, Dunaliella spp., cyanobacteria, archaea.
Halophilic bacteria of the lake are also categorized
as chemoautotrophs, chemoheterotrophs, photoau-
totrophs, photoheterotrophs and chemo-lithotrophs
(Baid 1959; Upasani and Desai 1990; Sharma et al.
2020a). These rich primary producers form the back-
bone of rich primary producer diversities with 14 pro-
tozoa, 15 rotifers, 45 crustacea (Dermaptera: 29 and
Coleoptera: 45) and 74 insect species (Kumar 2005).
With a further increase in salinity to above 200
g/l, biodiversity is completely limited to species of
Dunaliella sp. and Archaea sp., only found in the
core region of the lake, thereby giving dark red color
to the brine, accompanied by dead algal cells (Gupta
et al. 2015). This lake has always had one or the other
life form during every season. However, during mon-
soon to winter season, it supports abundant freshwa-
ter body organisms to slightly haloalkaliphilic ones,
which attract lakhs of migratory birds from different
countries (Sharma et al. 2020b). Birds are considered
to be the most commonly accepted ecological indica-
tor. Their decreasing trend in this lake indicates a dis-
turbance in the respective organisms of lower trophic
levels. Disturbance in the organism configuration is
a visible result of changing abiotic factors like pH,
salinity, alkalinity, oxygen and carbon dioxide, along
with disturbed landscape variables’ wetland shape,
size, patch, corridors and hydrological connectivity
between shoreline and core part of the lake (Naik and
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Sharma 2021). All these factors primarily indicate
the highly fluctuating water level, as shown in the
monthly water index maps of 2019, 2020 and 2021
coinciding with our bird survey time frame.
If the maps of 2019 are observed, the lake is devoid
of water during winter season, for January, February,
and March, when it is expected to have water. During
the dry months of April, May and June, there is no
water in lake. According to Naik and Sharma (2021),
the lake has been shrinking at a constant rate of
4.23% since 1963 every decade. Already 30% of the
lake has been converted to saline soil, and saline soil
to barren land. Illegal salt pan encroachments, along
with excessive groundwater, extracted using electri-
cal pumps, are among the prime causes of desiccating
status of the lake. Additionally, increasing settlement
areas, domestic and commercial waste dumping, and
other pollution are also putting urban pressure on the
lake (Sharma et al. 2020b). As there used to be no
water, it has often been used as vehicular testing sites,
which cause noise pollution in the peripheral area
(Kumar 2005). Based on the wetland status till Janu-
ary 2019, it has been predicted that the lake might be
completely desiccated by 2059, even losing its saline
character (Naik and Sharma 2021). This would ulti-
mately reflect on the global level ecological discon-
nectivity led by the migratory birds.
Surprisingly, there was sufficient rainfall in the
state of Rajasthan during monsoon period of 2019,
which helped to retain its water level, as seen in
August to December maps. According to some local
unpublished sources the lake welcomed lakhs of
migratory birds, indicating thereby a positive sign
of the revival of the lake. Unfortunately, within this
period, the lake also encountered a massive avian
botulism catastrophic event, a first in its entire history
of its existence. Due to this event, all the economic
activities were banned till the reason for botulism
was identified. This prohibited illegal activities, and
helped more water retention for January, February,
March 2020, as compared to the same period of 2019.
Meanwhile, due to the COVID-19 pandemic world-
wide, there was complete shutdown from March till
May 2020. This helped in maintaining the water level
even during the summer months of April, May, June,
and July. However, from August 2020 onwards, after
unlocking, the condition has again started deteriorat-
ing, as economic activities resumed. From the maps
of monsoon period of 2020 continuously till monsoon
Wetlands Ecol Manage (2022) 30:477–496
of 2021, the lake has been again desiccating. Accord-
ing to the Sambhar Salt Ltd, 77 ­ km2 towards the
east is allowed for salt extraction, while rest of the
113 ­km2 is allowed for ecological purposes, migra-
tory birds and groundwater recharge. But practically,
every part of the lake has been encroached, stealing
brine worth 330 billion dollars in the global salt mar-
ket. This might again reduce the water level, and sub-
sequently the visiting migratory birds.
High rainfall, short-term control over economic
activities and COVID-19 lockdown, combined helped
in reviving the water level without any capital invest-
ment. These indicate that the lake does have high
resilience capacity, and can be restored with little,
but a proper conservation and management plan.
According to The Gazette of India, 26 September
2017, PART II—Sect. 3—Sub-section (i), in context
to Sambhar Lake, a Sambhar Development Authority
(SDA) should be formulated. This authority should
designate an expert each for wetlands ecology, hydrol-
ogy, fisheries, landscape planning and socioeconom-
ics, besides one from the civil society; they should
meet at least thrice in a year. SDA should list out all
the activities that are allowed, regulated, or prohibited
within the Sambhar Lake. Additionally, the govern-
ment should allocate budget and human resources to
this authority to ensure smooth functioning. It should
also encourage activities like ecological rehabilitation
and rewilding of nature, research, environmental edu-
cation and participation activities, habitat manage-
ment and conservation of wetland-dependent species,
community-based ecotourism with minimum con-
struction activities, harvesting of wetlands products
within regenerative capacity. Government should take
the necessary steps based on the “wise-use” principle
of Ramsar Convention ‘wise use’. SDA should strictly
monitor the activities listed in 2017 rules that pro-
hibit within notified wetlands, such as the setting up
of any industry and expansion of existing industries,
manufacture or handling or storage or disposal of
construction and demolition waste, solid waste dump-
ing, discharge of untreated wastes and effluents from
industries, cities, towns, villages, and other human
settlements. It must ensure prohibition of any type of
illegal salt pan encroachment and wetland conversion
to non-wetland use. For this, SDA might also take
necessary assistance from professional institute(s)/
organization(s). Further, with the help of remote sens-
ing experts, hotspots for different migratory birds and
491
unique halophytes and halophiles should be identi-
fied. Then, their eco-sensitive buffer zones should be
mapped, using remote sensing and GIS technology.
Their habitat suitability assessment should also be
modeled with respect to different climatic scenarios.
These steps, coupled with complete check of ille-
gal salt pan encroachment, and excess ground water
extraction would be to maintain complete ecological
integrity of the lake. Further, all of these would auto-
matically support good quality of brine formation for
both pan and kyars salt produced in this lake. In turn,
this would help the Indian government to overcome
the loss of salt production.
It is widely believed that inland saline lakes are
either salt-producing sites or a wasteland. Though
there are globally 200 inland temporary and perma-
nent Ramsar sites (RSIS, Accessed August 10 2021),
still they are not considered to be conserved. These
conceptions have already led to the conversion of
world’s numerous large saline lakes like Aral Sea,
Caspian Sea, Lake Urmia, Lake Salton, Lake Utah,
Dead Sea, and Lake Balkhash. billion dollars busi-
nesses have collapsed, lakhs of livelihoods have been
lost, in addition to loss of habitats of migratory birds,
halo-tolerant vertebrates and invertebrates, along with
several recreational and educational sites.
Especially, our findings highlight the factors
responsible for the desiccation of this Ramsar site,
which might also be the cause of other lacustrine wet-
lands. It also provides a novel approach towards regu-
lar monitoring of the lakes integrating GEE. Taken
together, our findings along with previous studies
point towards the urgent need to conserve the rich
biodiversity of inland saline wetlands, playa wetlands,
shallow wet-lands, sabkhas, salterns, saltpans, athal-
assohaline lakes and soda lakes of the world. These
ecosystems are the blue lifeline for semi-arid to arid
regions, going to the alternative of freshwater bod-
ies in the near future almost in every climatic zones.
GEE replacing the high-end desktop computational
requirement with cloud computation. This technol-
ogy is helpful for wetland practitioners, researchers,
bureaucrats of shallow lakes in which water regime
fluctuate very frequently. However, it is nearly impos-
sible to keep an eye on the study areas at monthly
basis for collecting field data which requires a lot of
time and effort to generate useful information. Addi-
tionally, monthly analysis using remote sensing tech-
nology requires high-end work stations to download,
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process, and analyze satellite images which is also
nearly impossible for all wetland related persons.
Like in this case, the authors did not have high-end
workstation at their home during COVID-19 lock
down. The continuous and intense monitoring was
possible only because of the cloud computation avail-
ability of GEE. The manuscript is limited to only
NDWI application of GEE. However, this platform
as many other JavaScript based algorithms for soil,
salinity, algae, vegetation, turbidity etc. which are
the basis of preparation of management and restora-
tion plans. GEE is user friendly for a person with lit-
tle coding knowledge. It means, the tedious task of
mapping and monitoring can be conducted easily and
timely, fastening the task of landscape level analysis
to some extent. Hence, this new approach of integra-
tion of cloud computation with the ecological data-
sets can fasten the conservational networks during
the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
(2021–2030).
It is important to mention that the study was con-
ducted during the first phase of COVI-19 pandemic
situation. Due to repeated country wide lockdowns
and shut downs, sufficient field data could not be
collected, sampling and laboratory analysis could
not be done. These limitations are important to
be discussed. Firstly, this study does not cover the
results about vegetation aspects of the lake. How-
ever, it was not analyzed. It is because, most of
the inland saline-alkaline lakes are situated amid
desert ecosystems. These ecosystems have sparse
vegetation and very difficult to study using optical
remote sensing datasets. As, Sambhar Lake is also
one of the gateways to world’s 17th largest desert
known as Great Indian desert or the Thar desert.
The dominant vegetation are halophytes and xero-
phytes which are difficult map using Sentinel (10 m
spatial resolution) datasets. It requires intense field
survey which was also planned to do but could not
achieve the target due to repeated COVI-19 pan-
demic lockdowns. Secondly, this study also does
not include information about soil. Soil salinity
index was calculated in GEE every month for 2019,
2020 and 2021. But it was observed that, it did not
have significant changes every month like surface
water change, these results were not included in the
current manuscript. Thirdly, accuracy assessment of
NDWI was not included in the manuscript. Though,
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accuracy assessment of NDWI values with the field
data sets was planned to be conducted but due to
COVID-19 lock downs regular field visits could not
be done and subsequently, correlation analysis was
not performed. However, during bird census GPS
locations were taken and presented in Fig. 1 and
the seasonal status of the lake is given in Fig. 8a–c.
According to Singh et al (2015), in most of cases,
the water signatures are misclassified with the set-
tlements or construction areas. During the research
for past, present and future Land Use Land Cover of
this lake, authors had conducted intense field visits
with accuracy assessment which is presented in the
published manuscript (Naik and Sharma 2021). It is
mentioned that there are not construction features in
the lake. Most importantly as it is a saline lake, the
signatures of salt and saline soil are white and grey
in color, so there is very least chance of misclassifi-
cation of water bodies. So even if accuracy assess-
ment was not conducted, no wrong information
would be delivered though this manuscript. Impor-
tantly, the above reasons do not affect the overall
accuracy of the results and reduce the importance
of the study. Future research may choose to extend
this work by conducting species distribution mod-
eling for keystone species, like lesser flamingo,
machine learning techniques like Multivariate
Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) for multiple
species simultaneously, use of microwave datasets
for bathymetric analysis, integrated trophic status
index, spectral library generation of haloalkaliphiles
using hyperspectral datasets, use of Artificial Intel-
ligence and Internet of Things for water, soil and
brine quality monitoring.
Conclusions
The current study has been conducted in the larg-
est shallow saline wetland of India, Sambhar Lake.
It is experiencing severe threat due to illegal salt-
pan encroachment, use of illegal electric cables for
excessive underground water extraction and steal-
ing of brine worth 330 billion dollars in the global
salt market. Such activities are consistently degrad-
ing the ecosystem, creating thereby an imbalance at
each trophic level, right from the primary producer
to the tertiary consumer level. This study aimed to
analyze the status of migratory birds, and the water
Wetlands Ecol Manage (2022) 30:477–496
level of the wetland, using integrative approach of
ground survey and remote sensing. However, due
to avian botulism in 2019, COVID-19 shut down
in 2020 and repeated lockdowns in 2021, the pro-
posed methodology was changed. GEE helped
to monitor the lake every month even when the
authors were at home. The comprehensive results
showcase the blurred future of this amazing Ram-
sar site. If urgent conservational steps are not taken,
as discussed, it might be completely lost, before its
lease period (2059) as a salt industry. This research
would encourage other wetland specialist, research-
ers, conserve this ecosystem for using GEE. There
are 148 such inland saline Ramsar sites and other
unidentified sites sharing this common fate of des-
iccation; they should be prioritized during the UN
Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Acknowledgements Authors express gratitude to Asian
Waterbird Census, Wetland International and Wildlife Crea-
tures Organization (Phulera, Rajasthan) for primary bird data
collection during 2019, 2020 and 2021. We also thank Samb-
har Salt Limited for providing permission to conduct research
on the lake.
Author contributions Conceptualization, LKS; method-
ology RN; software RN; validation RN; formal analysis RN;
investigation LK; resources LK; data curation RN; writing
original draft preparation, RN; writing review and editing,
LKS; visualization, RN; supervision, LKS; project administra-
tion, LKS; All authors have read and agreed to the published
version of the manuscript.”
Funding This research received no external funding.
Declarations
Conflicts of interest The authors declare no conflict of inter-
est.
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